In a surgical stapling and cutting instrument it may be useful to control the display and other components of the instrument to provide alerts to the clinician using the instrument, power down the instrument, and take other such actions according to the operational state of the surgical instrument. The operational state of the surgical instrument (i.e., whether the instrument is cutting, stapling, clamping, articulating, or taking other such actions) can be detected by one or more sensors, which can be communicably coupled to a control circuit configured to execute various processes according to the states of the instrument detected by the sensors. In some situations, it may be useful to provide alerts to the clinician in order to alert the clinician as to errors experienced by the surgical instrument. In other situations, it may be useful to power down the instrument when the instrument has completed its surgical stapling and cutting operations. In still other situations, it may be useful to display the position of the knife during the course of a firing stroke thereof in order to allow a clinician to view the cutting progress.